Elemental
by geekischic
Summary: A series of Sarah/Cameron drabbles using the Periodic Table of Elements as inspiration. Confused? Curious? Full explanation inside.
1. Hydrogen

**A/N: I found this rather interesting challenge on Livejournal. Basically, you have to write a series of drabbles using the Periodic Table of Elements as inspiration for each installment. Since I didn't post in time for the challenge over there, I thought I'd continue the prompt over here. I'll be posting a drabble for every chapter, in the order that the elements appear on the Periodic Table. I'll also explain my train of thought before each drabble, just in case they seem unrelated. **

**A/N2: I plan to have each drabble contain Sarah and Cameron, though other characters like John and Derek may occasionally join in too. Hope you enjoy! :)**

Hydrogen: most abundant element- abundance- terminators outnumbering the humans

-o0o-

They were everywhere.

Circling around her, caging her in like some untamed animal. Guns pointed, cocked, ready to fire without a second's hesitation. Grinning sick grins of pure gleaming silver, taking a sick sadistic pleasure in her fear and confusion.

Fear consumed her before she could place the protective wall around her mind. And Sarah screamed. Screamed like she would never see the light of day again.

Because she wouldn't.

And then she's gasping for air, skin glistening with cool sweat as she feels the sheets balled in her fists. And Cameron is in the doorway, head cocked in that same position as she studies Sarah Connor.

"Sarah?" She queries, wooden voice in place as Sarah gulps in air. "Another nightmare?"

And Sarah squirms as she hears the word, hating that the machine has seen her this weak. That it knows about her tormenting nightmares as she wakes up night after night like this.

That it's seeing her vulnerability in abundance.


	2. Helium

**A/N: Second chapter: Helium. I plan to have one up every day (I have the first ten done already). These drabbles aren't going to continue in one main story. They're all separate little stories, each with their own genre. Some will be angsty, others funny, and some are even romantic. **

Helium: balloon- floating, flying

-o0o-

It's been a long time since Sarah's heard the metal squeak of the swing set. She heads outside, wondering who on earth would be doing something as simple as using the swing set while she herself was focused on the next plan of attack to prevent Judgment Day.

Outside, she finds Cameron sitting on the old rickety metal swings, pumping her legs to send herself higher and higher into the sky.

"What are you doing?" Sarah asks, incredulous and stunned as she watches the terminator.

"I'm flying." Cameron responds, and Sarah swears she can hear happiness in the machine's voice.


	3. Lithium

Lithium: used in insulation-heat- sweat

-o0o-

Sarah hates the desert.

It isn't because of the sand or the dry wind, or even because of the scratchy, parched feeling that gathers in the back of her throat. No, the reason is much simpler, more frustrating and distracting each time a mission leads them here to this oven baked wasteland.

Sarah watches as the tiny beads of sweat form a trail down the curve of Cameron's neck, nestling their way past the girl's clavicle and in between her breasts, clearly on display in the barely there tank top she'd become so accustomed to wearing. And Sarah licks her lips, wondering what it would be like to chase that bead of sweat along its path with her tongue.

And she scrunches her eyes shut, shaking her head against the thought as she tries to focus on the mission. But it's nearly impossible. She closes her eyes but Cameron is still there, her image etched on the inside of Sarah's eyelids. The long strands of brunette hair flowing in the wind, those long tan legs exposed in cutoff denim shorts, those tantalizing beads of sweat…

Sarah grits her teeth and marches along, trying her best to ignore the curious sideways glance the terminator is giving her. _Oh yes, _she thinks, _I definitely hate the desert._


	4. Beryllium

Beryllium: used in old photo bulbs- photograph

-o0o-

Cameron cocks her head to the side when she finds the photo, scanning her database for a related image. It takes only seconds for a search result to pop up: _Match found- Image 469085: Sarah Connor, 1984; possession of John Connor, 2017_

She searches her database for further information on the photo, finding that in the future, John tells her that this picture is what keeps him going during the toughest times of the war. That it's what keeps him searching for Kyle Reese, so he can send his father back in time to meet his mother. So he can be born, and so SkyNet can be destroyed.

It's then that Cameron understands the importance of this photograph.

"What are you doing?" Sarah asks as she sees Cameron sitting on her bed, holding on to the Polaroid that had been taken so many years ago.

"This picture is significant. You should keep it safe." Cameron states simply, rising from the bed. She hands the photo back before heading out of the room, leaving Sarah and her questions behind.

Sarah glances down at the photo and runs her thumb over the swell of her belly from so many years before, when she promised she would do anything to protect her child.

Kyle's child.

With a sigh, she shakes her head and places the photograph back in its drawer, where it's been hidden for so long. There isn't time to think about the past. The only thing that matters now is the future.


	5. Boron

Boron: commonly used in glass manufacturing

-o0o-

A hiss of pain escapes Sarah's lips as Cameron inspects her wounds. She hadn't been far enough away from the explosion, and was now paying the price with bits of the window panes embedded across her arms.

"This may hurt." Cameron warns, though her touch is surprisingly gentle. Sarah bites back a pained groan as the machine carefully pinches the bit of glass between her fingers, slowly removing it from Sarah's arm as she applies pressure around it. A bandage is applied next as a slow stream of blood continues to flow from the wound.

"Keep your arm elevated. It'll stop the bleeding." Sarah does as she's told, slowly flexing her muscles to test out how bad the damage is. "Will I need stitches this time?"

Cameron takes a moment to observe the wounds, her scanners inspecting both the abrasions and Sarah's vitals. "A bandage should be sufficient."

Sarah rises from her chair, still flexing her arm as she continues her own testing. She makes it halfway across the room before she stops, turning around halfway to once again acknowledge the machine.

"Thanks." The word is hesitant, tasting foreign and strange on Sarah's tongue as it directs itself across the room to the terminator. This isn't something she's particularly accustomed to.

"You're welcome." And Sarah turns around, the awkward feeling still filling her as she exits the room, Cameron's gaze boring into her as she leaves.


	6. Carbon

Carbon: abundant in the human body- released in death- dying

-o0o-

Sarah drops to her knees beside Derek's body, cradling his head in her hands as her eyes remain fixed on the bullet hole in his forehead. She can hear the word "No!" screaming around and around in her head, begging to be told that this isn't true.

But it is true. Derek is dead.

Her one link to Kyle, the only piece of the past she could afford to hold on to, was gone. The only connection she had to the man who had changed her life so many years ago, to the father of her child, was now lost.

Sarah can sense Cameron standing behind her. Watching her. She can even sense that the machine's head is cocked to the side, studying her, processing the scene before her eyes. "He's dead."

Sarah's head snaps around, fury flaming over her face as she glares at the terminator. "I can see that." She rises to her feet and walks away from the scene, leaving Derek behind. Leaving Cameron behind. Wishing she could leave the future behind as well.


	7. Nitrogen

Nitrogen: used in the production of electronic parts- Cameron's chip

-o0o-

Sarah's expression is impossible to read, grim and foreboding as she looks into her son's pleading eyes. "Now John."

He looks at her with a pained expression, one hand clenched around a stick of thermite, the other around Cameron's chip. It has to be done, they all know it, but Sarah is determined that John be the one to do it. "Destroy it."

John Connor glances down again, eyes traveling between Cameron's discarded body and her computer chip, a thousand emotions playing across his face. Sarah's eyes don't leave her son as she watches him, waiting for him to destroy the machine.

But in the blink of an eye, John uses his tuned reflexes to run to Cameron's body and return her chip to its home. Sarah hears the word _No! _escape her lips as the terminator's eyes glow blue, her system rebooting as her body once again starts up.

Her hand twitches to life, the gun in her hand cocked as she aims it at John. Sarah feels her heart pounding out of her chest as she runs, determined to place herself between her son and the bullet. She makes it within an inch before something in Cameron's eyes changes and the gun is lowered to her side. Slowly, ever so slowly, she reaches it back out, presenting it to John like some demented peace offer.

Derek, John, and Sarah freeze at the action, wary and alert at the machine's actions, praying that John hasn't damned them all. Cameron's head cocks to the side and she glances at them all, curious at their actions. And a single sentence leaves her lips, one that cements Sarah's distrust in the machines. "What's wrong?"


	8. Oxygen

Oxygen: breathing

-o0o-

Sarah gasps for breath as she feels the stitch in her side, the result of running for the past five minutes. Running from the latest machine sent back in time to assassinate her son.

Cameron and John run beside her, John gasping for air just like she is. But Cameron doesn't show any sign of tiring. There isn't even the slightest reddening in her face. Not a single clue to the fact that she'd been running at a steady pace for a good five minutes.

Sarah watches the terminator, feeling ashamed and guilty as she realizes that she's jealous of the machine. She takes another long gasp to send a punishment of cold pins and needles down her throat, mentally kicking herself for allowing that treacherous thought to slip through her mind.

But the action only reminds her that she's human, and that for the briefest second, she'd wished she was a machine.


	9. Fluorine

Fluorine: anesthesia- disorientation

-o0o-

A hard table was underneath her back. The edges of her vision were fuzzy. She couldn't seem to keep her gaze straight. Her head was swimming, and she could feel a warm liquid coating her side as her ribs throbbed. Snippets of conversation, with too loud words that made her head pound, entered her ears, though her bewildered mind couldn't make sense of any of them.

"… she die?"

"… allow me to operate…"

"… gauze and stitches…"

"… so much blood…"

Sarah's eyes fluttered shut as she blocked out the voices, feeling foreign fingers probing her ribs. Yet the touch felt strangely familiar, like she'd been through this once before…

TTTTTTT

"Sarah? Sarah?"

Sarah opened her eyes slowly, allowing her pupils to adjust to the light before it could send another jolt of pain through her head. She felt groggy, disoriented, and her gaze was still fuzzy around the edges. "What…"

"A piece of shrapnel from the explosion hit you. I have given you stitches, though you have lost a lot of blood. You must rest."

Cameron's voice floated in her ears and Sarah allowed her eyes to once again close, finding it easier than keeping them open. A moment passed before she felt her head being gently raised as a pillow was slipped underneath.

She knew that touch. Disoriented or not, Sarah could tell when Cameron was attending to her, with that touch that felt much too convincingly human.


	10. Neon

**A/N: Longest one so far. Hope it's not too far fetched that a guy who created a nightclub's computer system is also smart enough to eventually develop SkyNet. Oh well, I guess here anything goes. :)**

Neon: neon lights- nightclub

-o0o-

Sarah nearly turned around and walked right back out of the club as soon as she and Cameron walked in.

She hadn't been in a place like this since the eighties, when she'd hid from the very first terminator inside Techno Noir. A lot's changed since then. The music is louder and the lights are brighter and there are _way _more people now. Exactly why she'd wanted John and Derek to take this part of the mission.

_No. _Cameron had argued. _Women have a 95% higher probability of getting into a nightclub than men._

So here they were. Sarah wearing a dress far too short for her liking and Cameron showing off her long tan legs and considerable cleavage. With Sarah regretting every second of it.

"The computer system is in the VIP room." Cameron's breath puffed in Sarah's ear, sending shiver down her back as Cameron edged closer to her. Giving Sarah a perfect view of the cleavage she most certainly shouldn't be eyeing.

_The mission, think of the mission. _Sarah tried to stay focused on the computer system they were supposed to be hacking, the one created by a computer tech who would eventually develop a related program into the dreaded SkyNet. But staying focused on the mission was nearly impossible when she was situated behind Cameron, eyes fixed on those long legs as they strutted across the dance floor in those sinfully high heels.

_Mission, the mission. _But how can she think of the mission, with Cameron batting her lashes seductively at the VIP bouncer, pulling Sarah closer as the man pulls the door open for them? How can she stay focused as they head up the stairs and Cameron is standing so close that Sarah nearly reaches out to touch her?

_Mission, the mission. _She chants, hoping she'll listen to herself. Hoping that this damned music and these awful neon lights won't hypnotize her into doing something she'll regret.


	11. Sodium

Sodium: salt- salty- tears

-o0o-

Cameron stands in Sarah's doorway, quiet and unmoving, watching the raven haired woman while she believes that she is alone.

The terminator can hear Sarah's barely audible sniffles, can see the nearly invisible droplets of water sliding down her cheeks. She can see how Sarah is biting her lip, eyes scrunched shut as if holding herself back from screaming.

She cocks her head to the side, curious as she runs the action through her database.

_Match found: crying- performed by humans in response to pain_

The answer is there, but the machine is still confused. She fixes her gaze on Sarah as her scanners check her vitals. Blood pressure and heart rate are normal, nothing indicative of physical pain. So what is causing the pain behind Sarah's crying?

"Kyle," the machine's precise hearing detects Sarah's whisper, "it hurts to do this every day. When will it all stop?"

Cameron remains silent in the doorway, wondering who this Kyle is. She brings a fingertip to the corner of her eye, searching for a teardrop similar to Sarah's, wondering if it will help her understand.


	12. Magnesium

Magnesium: used in the manufacturing of laptops- Vick's chip being played on John's computer

-o0o-

The symbols don't make any sense. Triangles next to squares with lines drawn through them, paired with curves and angles that form a type of computer code that wouldn't be recognizable for at least another twenty years. But Sarah knows they do make sense. That they create the fabric of the terminators' minds and thoughts.

Cameron's mind.

Each and every one of these lines of random symbols create an individual memory stored away in the computer chip, and Sarah watches in amazement as one of Vick's memories is played on the computer screen.

The machine's eyesight is warped, creating space for the scanners and databases built into the software of the terminator's computer chip. The image is tinged with red, filled with words and phrases as the terminator searches for information on how to respond in its surroundings.

"Is this how you see the world? How you remember?" Sarah asks, half to the computer and half to Cameron, who she knows is hovering in the doorway behind her. Watching her.

"Yes." Comes the reply, simple and to the point, like all of Cameron's words.

"Do you ever forget?" The question escapes Sarah's guard, which usually keeps her from engaging in conversations with the machine that don't pertain to a mission.

"Every memory is saved into my software. I can't afford to forget anything. It might compromise a mission."

Sarah sighs as she returns her gaze to the screen, where just hours ago the words TARGET IDENTIFIED: JOHN CONNOR had appeared when John gave the chip too much power. Where just hours ago, her son had been marked for death. Again.

"Sometimes," Sarah says, mostly to herself as she closes her eyes, "it would be easier if you could just forget."


	13. Aluminum

**A/N: This one's just for fun :)**

Aluminum: aluminum foil- baking- cookies

-o0o-

Sarah reveled in the warmth of the sunlight pouring through the window, stretching her arms out like a cat as she yawned to shake away the last traces of sleep. She was always awake before John and Derek, and looked forward to a quiet cup of coffee before the sound of footsteps bounding down the stairs announced the arrival of her son and the clicking of a gun being cleaned indicated that Derek was awake too.

Only this morning, she was greeted by someone else as she walked into the kitchen.

Cameron looked up as Sarah entered the doorway, pausing her current action as Sarah took in the messy scene of the kitchen. Trays were laid out on every countertop and table, lined with parchment paper and freshly baked chocolate chip cookies.

"Good morning Sarah."

Sarah looked confusedly at the machine, wondering what on earth she was doing. "Why are you…?"

Cameron removed her hands from the bowl of dough in front of her, dusting off the excess flour as she answered Sarah. "I don't sleep. I read all the cookbooks you have last night and wanted to try baking."

The raven haired woman shook her head at the machine, allowing a small chuckle to escape her lips as she noticed a bit of dough stuck to Cameron's cheek. "Okay Cameron," she addressed the younger girl as she swiped her thumb across her cheek, removing the bit of dough, "just clean everything up when you're done."

She grabbed a cookie along with her coffee as she left the kitchen, leaving Cameron return to her newfound talent in baking.


	14. Silicon

Silicon: fake

-o0o-

Cameron stands by the window, eyes focused on the blackness of the night outside, scanning for every the slightest sign of movement. And from across the room, Sarah watches the terminator stand guard, protecting her and her son. She studies the girl. How her skin glistens with sweat from the heat, how her long brown hair blows in the breeze of the air conditioning, how her muscles are taut and tight beneath her skin. To anyone else, Cameron would appear human.

But Sarah knows better than that.

She knows that beneath her long brown hair and glistening skin, a metal endoskeleton holds the girl together. That everything else is just piled on top of the coltan to fool the eye into thinking the girl was human.

But it's all a trick.

It's all fake.


	15. Phosphorus

Phosphorus: used in explosives

-o0o-

Cameron lights the match and touches it to the fuse, tossing the stick of dynamite into the building Sarah and John had already doused with gasoline. The three of them watch as the future SkyNet factory explodes into flames, slowly but surely burning to the ground.

Sarah watches as the orange flames and black smoke fill the sky, calling attention to the one thing she'd learned was necessary: destruction. Destroying the machines, destroying SkyNet, destroying the disastrous future she knew was imminent. And, like she always does when they destroy another link to SkyNet, she allows herself to feel just the slightest bit of safety. For the moment, anyway.

"Sarah?" Cameron calls out to her, and Sarah realizes that the machine and her son have already headed back to the jeep. She turns and meets the terminator's gaze, realizing not for the first time how different the girl's eyes are from her own. "What's next on the list?"

Sarah slides into the driver's seat of the car, pulling out the paper that weighed a thousand pounds in her hand. The list that stated what else still needed to be destroyed to save their lives. She sighs and leans her head back, wondering if this will ever end.


	16. Sulfur

Sulfur: brimstone- Bible- religion

-o0o-

"Amen."

The word left Sarah's lips quietly, the footnote to her silent prayer. She glanced up at the crucifix standing before her, so alone and abandoned in this empty church in the middle of Mexico.

"Why are you talking to a statue?"

Sarah turns to face Cameron as she hears the remark, sighing at the interruption. This was one of the many times Sarah wished the machine would learn when to leave her alone. "I'm praying, Cameron,"

"But that is a statue. It is incapable of answering you." The terminator remarks, joining Sarah at her side as she glances at the cross before them. Sarah closes her eyes, using all her willpower to not use God's name in vain in his own house at Cameron's insolence. "People pray to God in churches. We talk to these…_ statues_ as if they are God, here with us."

Cameron cocks her head to the side as she studies Jesus' wooden face, blank eyes meeting blank eyes as she tries to understand. "Why?"

"Because sometimes," Sarah sighs, looking away from the girl and the statue as she glances out the window. She studies the barren wasteland they've reduced themselves to living in and smiles grimly at the irony, realizing that the desert only mirrors the bleakness their lives have become. "Sometimes we need strength outside ourselves to get through the day."


	17. Chlorine

Chlorine: pools- swimming- drowning

-o0o-

"Mom? Mom!"

Sarah heard John's voice, watery and distant as it floated around in her head, as if taunting her by remaining just out of reach. She could feel her eyes rolling back in her head, and this awful sensation in her chest, like someone was laying brick upon brick on top of her to slowly suffocate her.

"Can you hear me Mom?"

_Yes._ But somehow she couldn't find the strength to say the word. To open her eyes, even. The suffocating sensation was getting worse, and she felt her body racking with spasms as she coughed, desperately trying to get air into her burning lungs.

"Breathe Mom!"

And at the exclamation Sarah's eyes flew open, her vision swimming in front of her as she continued to try to catch her breath. It took a minute for her to get a decent breath into her chest, and only then did her vision return to greet her with the image of her family.

With Cameron hovering over her.

"What…?"

"Oh thank God." She heard John muttering, dropping to his knees in front of her as she realized she was lying on the ground. "I almost thought you drowned." The words were low and worried, clearly meant for only Sarah's ears.

"Drowned?" Sarah questioned propping herself up on her elbows as Cameron continued to monitor her vitals.

"The brakes failed as we reached the marina. Someone tampered with them," The machine filled her in, "The car's in there." She pointed to the water, where the faintest of air bubbles were still reaching the surface.

"If Cameron hadn't pulled you out, you would have drowned." John stated as he helped his mother to her feet. His eyes were full of unease and concern as he met his mother's gaze. "She saved your life."


	18. Argon

**A/N: I based this one on the episode in the first season where John and Derek use Cameron's chip to hack the traffic system in LA. I believe this was the first time Cameron's chip was removed, which was sort of the basis of Sarah's reactions in this piece.**

Argon: inert- non reactive

-o0o-

Cameron looked almost peaceful, lying out on the bed like that.

Sarah observed the girl from her seat on the edge of the bed, as she hadn't moved since John removed Cameron's chip. She'd heard John and Derek leave the house and knew that she should head back to her own room, but she felt something she couldn't identify tying her here.

To Cameron.

She turned to the girl, taking in her unnaturally still form. Sarah was used to seeing the girl in her mechanical stillness every day, but this type of stillness was unsettling. Now that Cameron was laying at rest, literally unable to move, she looked almost human. Her eyes had lost their undertone of bright blue light, filled only with the brown that looked so closely to a normal gaze. It was almost like the girl was sleeping, though Sarah knew better.

She reached her fingertips to the machine's cheek, knowing that this may be her only chance to do so, and studied the cool smoothness that lay within the girl's forged flesh. It was unnervingly believable, Sarah discovered, as she ran her fingers across the girl's cheek.

And though for years after the fact she would wonder what drove her to do so, she found herself leaning in towards the girl until her lips gently met the machine's. The kiss was brief and she felt something within her change from the second her lips touched Cameron's, but strangely she didn't regret the action. Maybe it was because she knew this was the only time she would get the chance. Maybe it was because she knew no one else would ever need to find out. But whatever the reason, as Sarah finally did leave the room, she found herself wondering if things might be different when Cameron eventually did wake from her peaceful slumber.


	19. Potassium

Potassium: potassium chloride- used for the lethal injection- "execution"

-o0o-

Sarah always knew that this day would come.

From the very first day that Cameron showed up at her door with the intent of protecting John's life, Sarah knew that the day would come where she would have to be destroyed. Executed. Just like every other machine that had traveled back in time.

The truth is that machines break. It's their destiny, after all. You can only make so many repairs, can only piece back together the separated parts so many times before the machine refuses to be mended and becomes useless. Defunct. Destroyed.

And though Sarah knew that this day always had to come, she can't help the foreign tear that wells in her eye as she lights the flare to ignite the thermite. She can't help the conflicting emotions that rampage through her like a flood as the flaming thermite is thrown into the ditch with Cameron's endoskeleton. With her battered fabricated flesh, ruined by her final battle. With the computer chip that had already disintegrated, destroyed by the T-888 who knew exactly where to hit to finish off its kin.

She doesn't understand how she can be feeling this way towards a machine, yet she still feels that strange tear falling down her cheek as she averts her eyes from the too bright flames. And before she turns to leave Cameron to rest in peace, one final word leaves her lips.

"Goodbye."


	20. Calcium

Calcium: bones- human- human vs. machine

-o0o-

"This doesn't make any sense!" John throws his pencil on the table, pressing his fingers to his temples in frustration as he attempts to complete his math homework.

"Yes, it does." Cameron replies, her voice calm as her pencil works with ease over her own set of math problems.

"Well, excuse me for not having a computer chip for a brain. Makes it a little harder to understand." John snaps, standing from his seat as he angrily storms off to his room.

Sarah watches the exchange with her lip caught between her teeth. She watches as Cameron's eyes remain glued to the paper, her pencil dancing across the page as it easily completes her assigned work. And then she glances at her son's abandoned work, strewn with eraser shavings and half completed answers.

More often than not, the little things were what amazed her the most at how different Cameron and John were. At how different human was from machine.


	21. Scandium

Scandium: used for space shuttles- Cameron exploring the stars

-o0o-

Cameron's head is tilted back, her eyes scanning the black ink of the sky as she studies the bulbs of white light that illuminate it. She stores each star's location into her database, though she's not sure what she may need it for.

"You're staring like you haven't seen the stars before." Sarah's voice filters into her ears, eyes raised skyward as she steps beside the machine.

"I haven't. In the future, the smoke from the war hides the stars."

Sarah shakes her head, finding it impossible to imagine a world without stars filling the sky. "They're so beautiful." Her eyes lower back to the machine, though Cameron's gaze remains on the stars, drinking in the expanse of the nighttime sky.

"Yes, beautiful." Cameron replies, voice dull and dry, and Sarah knows that she's heard but doesn't really understand.


	22. Titanium

Titanium: strength

-o0o-

Cameron lifts the box of coltan with ease, face set in a stony, emotionless expression as she carries it to the edge of the water. Without a muscle even flexing beneath her skin, the box is tossed a good hundred feet outward to rest at the bottom of the ocean.

Sarah keeps her eyes fixed on the print on the side of the box: weight- 2 tons. She watches the terminator toss the container out into the ocean, silently awed at the sight.

She'd dealt with plenty of terminators in her lifetime, but their sheer, effortless strength never ceased to amaze, and frighten, her.


	23. Vanadium

Vanadium: used to make tools- building- Cameron repairing herself

-o0o-

Sarah watches Cameron from the doorway of the garage, finding herself both curious and concerned as she observes the machine. Right hand poised over left, she was struggling as she tried to repair her own arm. Sarah felt oddly surprised at the smug happiness that filled her as she watched the scene, knowing it was probably the first time Cameron had ever had difficulty in completing a task.

"What are you doing?" The question is unnecessary, but Sarah asks it anyway, wondering how the machine perceived what she was doing.

"My arm is malfunctioning," She states, voice emotionless as she continues to work on the metal endoskeleton of her arm. She continues to struggle for a minute or so before setting down the blood stained scalpel and turning to Sarah. "I am unable to make the necessary repairs with only one free hand. Could you assist me?"

A part of Sarah is revolted and tells her to turn around and head back into the house. But another part, that ever present human curiosity, draws her in to the machine, morbidly fascinated by the scene before her. She sits next to Cameron and hesitates as the girl hands her a tiny wrench, looking at the machine expectantly as she awaits instructions. "Tighten the two screws connecting my arm to my hand."

Sarah points to the screws in question and Cameron nods, reassuring her before she tightens them as she's been instructed. Cameron then flexes her arm, metal bones shifting as her hand rotates in the diagnostic test before she deems it reasonable. "This will work."

Sarah sets down the wrench as Cameron closes the incision she's made, returning her arm to its normal state. She makes it halfway to the door before the machine's voice stops her, a single word meeting her ears that makes her stomach twist nervously.

"Thanks."

It sounds strange in the machine's voice, and Sarah turns to face her slowly before giving the customary response.

"You're welcome."

It's different, talking to the machine like this, and Sarah ponders the thought as she leaves the garage, feeling like something has changed between them.


	24. Chromium

Chromium: chrome- silver- Cameron's endoskeleton

-o0o-

Sarah knows she should be used to it, but her eyes remain glued to the bits of silver peeking out from the scrapes in Cameron's skin.

She watches as the machine works the needle and thread back and forth through her skin, her face fixed in the same emotionless expression it usually sports. The silver metal gleams from beneath its red and tan covering, and Sarah finds herself sickeningly fascinated by the sight of Cameron's coltan endoskeleton.

"The wounds should heal by tomorrow." Cameron announces simply as she ties off the end of the stitches. Sarah nods on autopilot, still lost in a world of gleaming silver. In the world she knows is the impending future.


	25. Manganese

**A/N: This takes place at the end of Today is the Day Part 2, where John breaks down crying after learning that Riley is dead.**

Manganese: brittle metal- fragile- being sad/upset

-o0o-

Cameron watches John, seated next to his mother, as his eyes close and he bites his lip. It takes a minute or so for the tears to appear, for John fights them as long as he is in front of Cameron and Sarah, but in the end his sadness wins out. Hot tears appear in the corners of his eyes, quickly growing into heavy sobs as he lays his head in his mother's lap. She strokes his hair, comforting him in the only way she can as a dark sorrow appears across her face as well.

Cameron cocks her head to the side, studying the scene before her as John continues to cry. It's something she hasn't seen from John before. She'd seen humans cry like this before, both here and in the future, but it was quite different when it came from John. "Riley…"

Cameron scans the action through her database as she hears the quiet word slip from John's lips.

_Mourning,_ the result tells her, _performed to express grief or sorrow, especially in the event of a death._

Cameron nods to herself, piecing together Riley's death and John's grieving as she understands the link between the two. She then scans her database for further information about grieving, searching for the appropriate phrase to respond. It takes less than a second for it to appear.

"It's going to be okay."

Sarah looks up at Cameron's soft spoken remark, surprise filling her features as she realizes the machine has spoken. She continues to stroke her son's hair as his sobs continue, but she meets Cameron's gaze as she glances over at the girl.

_Thank you_ she mouths, not wanting to disturb her son's much needed mourning.

Cameron nods in response, continuing to watch Sarah and John as the ritual continues. She marks this moment in her database under the topic of "Human Rituals", satisfied that she has correctly assimilated to the process of grieving.


	26. Iron

Iron: rust (iron oxide)- old- memories

-o0o-

The rusty old swing set creaks as Sarah sits in one of its seats. The chains groan and the support beams squeak as she rocks herself forward and back. Forward and back.

Just like she used to do when she was a little girl.

This was the same park she used to visit back then, though much has changed since she'd been here last. The playgrounds had been replaced and new benches had been placed amongst the grass, and there were far fewer children here than she remembered. But all that was to be expected with the passage of time. Everything changes with time.

Sarah sighs as she comes to this realization, glancing up at the orange and red sky as she observes the sunset mark the passage of another day. The passage that occurred every day, which transitioned into the ever looming future with alarming speed.

She hears Cameron walking up behind her, taking a seat on the swing next to her. She doesn't know how the machine figured out her whereabouts, but at the moment she doesn't care. Right now, she's too caught up in the past. In the memories she hardly ever lets herself linger on.

"There's no avoiding it, is there? Judgment Day," She asks the machine, though her eyes remain on the clouds above.

"No," Cameron's voice is quiet, almost as if she could sense that this was a silence not meant to be disturbed, "We can postpone it for years. Decades, even. But it will always come. One day, it will definitely come."

Sarah sighs as her eyes close, and she's eight years old again as her memories wash over her. Her mother is seated on the bench across from her, laughing and telling her to enjoy herself while she waits right here. And as she inevitably opens her eyes again, she finds herself wistfully wishing that time could freeze in one moment, to prevent the future from ever taking its deadly hold on the world. To keep that ominous future from ever tainting the earth with its presence.


	27. Cobalt

**A/N: Not sure what it is about this one, but this chapter has been my favorite so far. I really loved the episode this takes place in (from season 1), where Cameron destroys a terminator in the garage and the thermite flames light her up like the "big scary robot" she says she is. :)**

Cobalt: cobalt blue- Cameron's lit up eyes

-o0o-

Sarah is almost blinded by such a brilliant blue.

The white hot flames eating away at the endoskeleton of the destroyed terminator light up Cameron's skin as she stands next to the pit, watching another of her kind burn away into nothing. The flame lights straight through her skin, revealing her gleaming coltan endoskeleton, and when Cameron looks up, her gaze has turned from brown to a bright, piercing blue. Sarah has seen the machine's lit up eyes before, but this time, there's something so powerful about it that she's stunned into silence.

The flames die away, casting regular light back on the remaining terminator, and Cameron's eyes once again return to brown. And into Sarah's mind floats the thought that on the surface, the girl looks so convincingly human. But she knows that those bright blue lighted eyes are hiding underneath, waiting to be seen again. The only problem was that she wasn't sure which gaze she would rather look into again, as both seemed so strangely enticing.


	28. Nickel

Nickel: flip of a coin- luck

-o0o-

Cameron's lips are deliciously soft as they press against Sarah's.

Sarah runs her fingers through the girl's hair as she kisses her, eyes fluttering shut as she pushes away the part of her that says this is wrong. She finds herself pulling Cameron closer as she kisses her harder, slinging a knee across the girl's hips as she straddles her.

"Cameron." The word is soft and hoarse as it escapes Sarah's lips, trapped between the two of them as she acts on the dream she's had since the girl first walked into her house.

Cameron's hands travel down Sarah's back, resting on her hips as she encourages her to come impossibly closer. Her fingers brush against the exposed skin between Sarah's shirt and the top of her jeans, and a moan escapes Sarah's lips at the electricity that shoots through her body at the touch. Her fingers thread through Cameron's long brown locks as Cameron's lips find their way across Sarah's throat, teasing the most sensitive spots as she discovers them.

But suddenly, too suddenly, Cameron is pushing Sarah away, moving her to sit on the couch beside her without the slightest warning. Confusion and curiosity play across Sarah's darkened eyes, wondering what on earth the girl is doing. "Cameron what are you-"

"John and Derek are home early." She explains quickly, and Sarah's eyes close in frustration as she hears the car pull in to the driveway, confirming Cameron's prediction.

_Just my luck _she grumbles, standing from her seat on the couch as she heads into the next room, wishing that for just once, things could go her way.


	29. Copper

Copper: penny- penny for your thoughts

-o0o-

Sarah and John are stopped in mid sentence when Cameron walks past them. Wearing nothing but a bra and panties.

Sarah shakes her head as her sentence dies on her lips, noticing how her son is turning bright red and stumbling over his words. Silently, she laughs, allowing herself to appreciate the humor of their situation for once. "I'll be right back." She tells John, leaving him behind to wallow in his embarrassment as she heads for Cameron's room.

She's standing at the window, curtain pulled aside, on guard even though it's eight in the morning. And yet, she still isn't dressed.

"Why is John embarrassed?" Cameron asks Sarah without turning around, sensing that she's there. Sarah shakes her head as she leans on the side of the doorway, grinning slightly at the serious tone of the machine's voice. "Penny for your thoughts? It would do you good to put some clothes on before you left your room."

Sarah turns around and heads back towards her own room, allowing herself to utter a rare chuckle as Cameron responds with her favorite phrase. "Thank you for explaining."


	30. Zinc

Zinc: mineral essential to sustaining life

-o0o-

Sarah sips her coffee as she watches Cameron load the .9 mil she'd already managed to empty. She'd come back from a nighttime solo mission just as Sarah had come downstairs for her morning coffee, reporting the outcome of her mission to Sarah before moving to reload for the next one. And as Sarah watches the girl, she realizes that she's broken a promise she'd made to herself.

She promised that she would never trust the machines. That she wouldn't allow them out of her sight until they couldn't function, as they most definitely couldn't be trusted. But Cameron had changed all of that. A year ago, Sarah wouldn't have dreamed of letting Cameron a hundred feet near her. And now, she was allowing the machine to sit in her living room as she ate her breakfast right next to it.

She ponders the thought as she watches the girl focus on reloading the gun with the utmost precision. The precision she used in everything she did. As Sarah watches Cameron slide the magazine back into the gun, she realizes that very gun had saved both hers and John's lives countless times, all while Cameron's finger had been on the trigger. At any second, Cameron could have turned on them and ended their lives, as the rest of her machine kin were programmed to do. But she never did. Instead, she'd protected them, completely contradicting the purpose of the terminators.

Sarah sighs to herself as she comes to a conclusion she's never considered before. As much as the machines held responsibility for destroying human life, could it also be true that they were responsible for sustaining it?


	31. Gallium

Gallium: melts in your hand

-o0o-

From the moment Cameron's fingers graze Sarah's skin, she feels liquid fire melting her into a helpless puddle. Cameron's fingertips glide their way over Sarah's hips, stomach, breasts, until they find their way to her cheeks, holding her in place as she places a kiss upon her lips. Sarah moans softly as she pulls Cameron closer, unable to do anything else as she becomes putty in Cameron's hands. Helpless to the machine's touch, kiss, and caress.

Cameron's lips trail their way down her neck and Sarah closes her eyes, lost in the heavenly feel of the girl's ministrations. Her heart races and breath shallows as lust overtakes her, darkening her eyes and heating her skin as she closes her mind to everything but Cameron.

The girl's lips part from Sarah's neck for a moment, bringing them within the space of a breath next to Sarah's as she capture's the woman's gaze. "You trust me." The words are soft and breathy as they puff against Sarah's lips, speaking a truth she hadn't even realized for herself.

"Yes." She breathes back, surprised at the truth she finds in the word as Cameron takes each of her slender wrists in her hands, gently pinning them above her head as their lips meet once again. And as Sarah is pinned into the seemingly helpless position, she can't help but feel so unexpectedly safe in Cameron's arms.


	32. Germanium

Germanium: used in thermal/infrared scanning- Cameron's scanners

-o0o-

"John!"

The word pierces the sky louder than the gunshots that surround it. It feels like someone else is ripping Sarah's voice from her throat as the pained, screamed word charges past her lips and out into the sky.

She drops to her knees beside her fallen son, watching in horror as the bright red blood dampens his too pale skin. Her palms find their way to the wound, applying pressure as hot tears leak out of her eyes and a painful fear constricts her throat. "Stay with me, John." She whispers fiercely as her vision blurs from the tears, "Please, you have to stay with me."

The sound of metal being crushed reaches her ears, followed by heavy, fast running footsteps. Inhumanly fast footsteps. And before Sarah can piece together what's going on, Cameron is beside her, the chip of the enemy T-888 in her hand.

"Keep applying pressure. I need to work fast to stop the bleeding." She states as hysteria threatens to overtake Sarah. She's hyperventilating, tears continually flowing down her cheeks as she follows the machine's orders.

"He'll be alright Sarah, I promise. The gunshot isn't fatal. His heartbeat is elevated and his blood pressure is dropping, but if I can stitch him quickly he'll be okay." Cameron's voice is calm as she reaches into Sarah's bag, extracting the ever ready medical kit as she prepares the stitches.

"How do you know?" Sarah gasps, fear still gripping her as she continues to apply pressure.

"Just trust me." The girl replies as she begins to suture the wound. It only takes minutes for the machine to finish her task, but John still lies too motionless.

"He's not breathing!" Sarah whispers, panic beginning to set in as she watches her son. Cameron places her hand under John's head and brings her lips to his, attempting to breathe life into him in the last effort she can make.

And as she leans back to check his vitals again, a single shuddering breath fills the aching silence between the three of them, and John opens his eyes.


	33. Arsenic

Arsenic: used in the treatment of cancer

-o0o-

"I need your help."

The request is one that Sarah has often made of Cameron, only this time it's different. It's still a matter of life and death, only this time it only regards one life. Her life. And the fact is what's terrifying her as she stands in the girl's room, taking in her surroundings as she tries to hide her nerves.

"What do you need?" Cameron replies, cocking her head to the side as she observes Sarah's nervous aura. Sarah's arms wrap around her waist protectively as she looks away from the girl, finding her piercing gaze unnerving not for the first time. "I found a lump in my side. You told me that if we hadn't time travelled, I would have had… cancer…" She hesitates on the last word, as if saying it would curse her with her fate. "Can you tell if it's cancerous?"

"Lie down," the girl orders and Sarah obliges, laying down on the girl's unused bed as she hovers over her. She feels Cameron edge up the hem of her shirt and her breath catches in her throat as Cameron 's surprisingly warm fingers glide across her stomach, tracing the edge of the lump Sarah discovered as she examines it.

And just as Sarah's heart begins to slow from the gallop the touch caused, Cameron's fingers are gone, returning to her side as Sarah pulls her shirt back down. "Well?"

"It's benign," the girl replies, and it feels like a weight has been lifted from Sarah's shoulders as she closes her eyes in thanks. "Thank god," she mutters as she brings a hand to her eyes, grateful that she's once again escaped fate.

For now.


	34. Selenium

Selenium: used in the toning of photographs- aging

-o0o-

Sarah finds herself biting her nail as she watches Cameron pace back and forth in the living room on her nightly guard. It's late now, easily two in the morning, and Sarah sits on the stairs, trying not to alert the girl to her presence. The machine's skin is flawless, her hair perfectly arranged, her body light and lithe in its expression of pure youth. And not for the first time, Sarah finds herself envious of the girl, who she knows hasn't aged a day since she was first built.

Many times Sarah has sat here worrying about the future, both the world's and her own. The threat of her impending cancer has her on constant alert, terrified that the disease will take her away from her son. That something purely _human_ will end up separating her from the one person she cares the most about, rather than the machines she's been so happy to place all the blame upon.

So Sarah watches Cameron as she continues to pace, wondering if the girl's care for John will be as satisfactory as her own. Because she knows that eventually, John will have to live without her, and place his life entirely in Cameron's hands.


	35. Bromine

**A/N: Wow, it's been a long time since my last update! Sorry for the wait, but real life has just been kicking my butt lately (and my muse has been taking a rather inconvenient vacation). This chapter takes place in the season two premiere, where Cameron's hard wiring was reset back to where her "primary mission" was once again set to terminate John after the Jeep explosion.**

Bromine: used in flame retardants- extinguishing flames- Cameron in the Jeep after it exploded

-o0o-

Sarah smells the explosion before she sees it. She knows all too well the smell of melting metal and burnt plastic. Of explosive residue and crumbling ash. Of destruction and devastation.

Her eyes take in the destroyed Jeep as she runs outside with John trailing right behind her. Flames lick the sides of the obliterated vehicle and pieces of burnt rubber litter the street as the crowd of people begins to form around the car, forming the telltale circle of awe and astonishment around the scene.

But it's something else in the Jeep that grabs Sarah's attention. A hand, protruding grotesquely out the side of the window, half covered in flesh and half exposed for what's underneath. Gleaming silver coltan.

"Cameron!" She hears her son cry beside her and he dashes out ahead of her before she can stop him. She cries for him to stop, for now she sees the hand twitch back to life and the pieces of rubble tossed to the side as the girl rises impossibly from the wreckage.

"John, no!" Sarah's voice fills the street as she watches Cameron's head cock to the side the way she'd seen all the other machines do countless times. It was the way they observed their victim before they made their move to assassinate.

But John realizes this too, just as Cameron makes her move. He escapes her grip just in time and Sarah meets him as he dashes back to her, gripping his arm hard enough to bruise. She half drags him along as they begin to flee from their former ally. "You run John!" Sarah pants angrily at her son, whom she shoves ahead of her as Cameron's footsteps thunder behind them. "You run for your life, and don't you dare look back!"


End file.
